The Food Virgin is the home of The Food Virgin articles and podcasts, providing everything you need to know to eat any cuisine. With advice covering what to expect, what to order, what the food is like and how to eat it, The Food Virgin provides answers for people who are trying a new cuisine for the first time, as well as experienced diners who want to eat like the experts.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

T'is the Season... for Gingerbread Cookies!

Why is gingerbread such a holiday-time food? Probably because you can shape it and decorate it into fun things. Last year, I made a gingerbread shack. I say 'shack', because my architectural measurements were done rather lacksidaisically, so when it came time to put up the structure on the plate, it was less like a perfect Amish barn raising, and more like building a shanty in a third world slum. Even the decorations didn't help. Ultimately, its only tenants were fruit flies.

Today, I tried to make my favourite gingerbread cookies. They are normally delicious and get rave reviews. Today, though, they stuck to the pan, so getting them off without breaking them was a challenge that has left my cookie sheet forever scarred. My plan is to bring them to a Christmas party tonight, and blame the broken ones on the bottom on breakage in transport. Hee Hee Hee! In all honesty, I think my problem today was a slight shortage of butter. They do say that baking is a science, and boy are 'they' ever right!